Love was in the air as early as last week, when newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cooed fondly about his past meetings with new National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. According to an item in Sunday's London Independent, the recollection came as Sharon spoke to reporters from Israel's Channel 2 News:

"His precise confession is a matter of some debate. But when Condoleezza Rice visited Israel last year, Mr Bush's new national security adviser made a powerful impression on him. At the very least, Mr. Sharon said he found the woman very attractive. According to other sources, he said: 'I have to confess, it was hard for me to concentrate in the conversation because she has very nice legs.'"

Closer to home, one group was making the familiar "nothing says 'I love you' like a tax cut" pitch. That was the word from the conservative Family Research Council, who used the occasion to lobby for an end to the so-called marriage penalty.

"This year, in fact, Congress will introduce several proposals to eliminate the marriage tax, and we say, let a thousand roses bloom," FRC President Ken Connor said in a statement Wednesday. "Congress should begin by fixing one of the strangest and most inequitable features of our tax code and restore goodwill toward married couples."

According to a recent account in People magazine, and relayed by the Hotline's Howard Mortman, Democrats have also been known to get swept up by the holiday. Denise Rich, ex-wife of the newly-liberated international man of mysetery Marc Rich, once hired "17 umbrella-toting cupids in red hot pants who sang 'It's Raining Men' at a recent Valentine's Day celebration." -- Anthony York [2:35 p.m. PST, Feb. 14, 2001]

The Harlem Shuffle Bill Clinton is out of office, but he's still not out of the woods. The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening a probe of the former president's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House have sharpened their subpoena sticks, aiming to snag Denise Rich's bank statements, the Clinton library's donor list, White House visitor logbooks and e-mails from the waning days of the Clinton administration.

Though the congressional wing of the GOP wants to proceed, a different message is coming from the West Wing. President Bush said Tuesday that he has no interest in further investigation of Clinton capers and that the country should move on.

Clinton himself is having trouble moving on. With the Republicans staying on his case, the ex-president is racking up legal bills while his second career as a public speaker is struggling. After some anti-Clinton investors balked when Morgan Stanley Dean Witter paid him $125,000 for a speech in Florida last week, PaineWebber's parent company ended negotiations to have Clinton speak at one of its events.

Even Clinton's political allies are dismayed by the lingering scent of scandal surrounding his exit from the White House. Democrats reportedly are thinking twice about how prominent a role he should play in the Democratic Party's leadership.

The former president is also running into an unexpected roadblock as he tries to settle on office space in Manhattan. Though Harlem residents seem eager to have Clinton move into the top floor of an office building in their neighborhood, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that that space already belongs to the city. But Giuliani, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's first opponent in the New York Senate race, said that he'd be willing to let the ex-president have the office if the price is right.
-- Alicia Montgomery [6 a.m. PST, Feb. 14, 2001]

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